ON SOCCER:Their League Cup final defeat will have hurt but Mick Wallace is still building something good

AFTER THEIR painful experience on Saturday night, Wexford Youths might well need reminding just now that cup success is a relative thing. Sure, Mick Wallace's young side were outplayed by a Derry City team who have really found their stride of late but getting to the final of the League Cup in just their second season of senior football, then staging it so well, will surely come to be regarded as something of a triumph when the wounded pride recovers around Ferrycarrig Park.

Wallace was quick to put the defeat in perspective, speaking of the giant strides he, his club and its players have made. There was also talk of the high regard the people of the county have for this "social project".

That certainly showed on Saturday when more than 3,000 turned out to cheer a home side that never really had much chance of winning. And there would have been many more had there been somewhere to put them.

Most of the seating was temporary and it's hard to imagine the host club made much money on the biggest night in their short history. What they have established at Ferrycarrig, though, is clearly the basis for something wonderful.

Not that the club are aiming to make the breakthrough in the Champions League or even spend their way to a domestic title but then the relative modesty of their aims can hardly be considered a weakness in a league plagued by on-field over-ambition and off-field under-achievement.

Instead, what is being developed is a club firmly rooted in the community, with quality facilities on and off the pitch. A few chairmen around the country would happily swap their own club's greater sense of tradition, the titles won decades ago or the odd European adventure recalled over pints for a little of what Wallace and those around him have built just off the N11.

For Derry City, Saturday's win, and the manner of it, was significant, although mainly as a pointer to what might be achieved if Stephen Kenny can maintain his team's dramatic improvement.

It's hard not to wonder what might have been achieved had Kenny's tenure at the Brandywell not been interrupted by his move to Scotland, but since returning the Dubliner has been quick to remind us why Dunfermline sent for him a couple of years back.

The club's recent record in the League Cup is almost bewilderingly good but Kenny was quick to point out that Derry had also won the FAI Cup just before he left at the end of 2006, having also narrowly missed out on the league title.

With Bohemians romping off into the distance, the championship is out of the question for at least another 12 months, but Derry, who play an FAI Cup quarter-final this evening with a Setanta Sports Cup semi-final to come in a couple of weeks, still have significant other fish to fry this season.

The all-Ireland nature of the latter competition, Kenny acknowledges, makes it an especially coveted trophy around Derry and to judge by the recent form of his young, gifted and increasingly confident looking side, the prospects of them winning it are hardly unrealistic.

This evening, on the other hand, it would be a major surprise if St Patrick's Athletic can overturn the 2-0 deficit they face after the first leg of their Uefa Cup tie against Hertha Berlin.

The Dubliners have, however, like Drogheda United against Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League qualifiers, shown immense character in their European games this season and while it would be a tremendous boost for the league if they could somehow turn the tie around at the RDS, a result of any kind would represent a respectable (and useful) end to a good run for Johnny McDonnell's side.

This is the fourth time in five years an Irish side has reached the Uefa Cup first round proper and the impact on the league's ranking in Europe has been significant. Ireland were rated 35 for this year and are on course to jump another few places for next season.

Swedish clubs know more about their Irish counterparts' recent improvement than most but against Elfsborgs, St Patrick's did particularly well to come from behind in both legs, underlining how clubs from this country no longer expect to bow tamely out of Europe, an attitude that seemed for many years to be half the problem.

Their performances in the last round, like Drogheda's against Dynamo, also showed how Irish players can now compete in terms of fitness with opponents from across Europe, many of them experienced internationals.

The Swedes thought they had done enough to qualify at Richmond Park a few weeks ago and looked completely crushed by their hosts' ability to bounce back from the concession of a goal and pursue the required result all the way into injury-time.

The Ukrainians, meanwhile, might have looked the better side over the two games against Drogheda but they were blessed to qualify after being overrun by the Irish champions during the closing minutes of the second leg. What they did to Spartak Moscow in the next round (they won both legs 4-1 to triumph 8-2 on aggregate) only seemed to add to Drogheda's achievement.

On balance then, it's been a good year for the Irish in Europe. Bohemians might have done better and Cork City really should have but Drogheda United and St Patrick's Athletic have maintained the forward momentum.

McDonnell and co have one last chance to make what would be a famous breakthrough this evening. It's a long shot but they've still come a long way since the infamous Zimbru Chisinau calamity less than a decade ago.